Profile of professional nursing education in politics and public health policy development in the U.S. Capitol

A University sits within two miles of the U.S. Capitol. The first female Speaker of the House is a graduate. It is imperative that the new Nursing Program and course Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care utilize the great resources available in Washington, DC to help shape public health policy development. This presentation profiles how one course and subsequent teaching/learning experiences throughout the curriculum help our next generation of professional nurses influence health care policy locally, nationally, and internationally. R.N. to B.S.N. students have teaching/learning experiences with health policy staff in the U.S. Congress. For instance, Speaker Pelosi's health policy staff and Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows, as well as classes with Representative Lois Capps, Chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus and her health policy staff. Outcomes to date are measured by new graduates influence in developing a pilot project for nurse run clinics in the District of Columbia, a profile of professional nursing involvement in health care work in Rwanda, Africa, and the motivation of students to go on for graduate work to help shape the context of health care delivery. Students are empowered to see that the focus of health care delivery in the United States must change from tertiary and chronic care in institutions, to health promotion and maintenance in the community, so we do not see the unnecessary revolving door of discharge and re-admittance for preventable chronic conditions, but for lack of public health policy in the community. As the RWJ Health Policy Fellow said to the students in the Speakers Chambers: until nurses are at the policy table, health care will not change in this country. Strategies will be outlined that are utilized to empower students in a professional nursing education program to become leaders in shaping the health care settings in which they want to deliver care and be accountable to their clients – individual, family, community – local, national, international